WE’RE NOT SHAMING! Respect for Life fires back at SAGE RAGE

SAGES, a rogue student coalition that started at Rose Hill last semester to fight for sex and gender equality on campus, says it will protest Respect for Life‘s annual “Memorial of the Innocents” demonstration.

The demonstration — which consists of 2,900 small white flags posted on the McGinley Center Lawn, representing the 2,900 abortions that are performed in the United States every day — will be held April 28 and 29.

SAGES “will be standing in solidarity with students who have experienced abortion against the disrespectful ‘baby graveyard’ that happens on McGinley lawn every year,” according to an email sent by the group to student volunteers. (Organizers have advertised an incorrect date for the demonstration.)

BREAKING NEWS: we will b protesting the graveyard 3/20 in solidarity with the students at Fordham who have had abortions. #fordhamspeaks

SAGES said it will flyer and do a banner drop, advocating birth control. It is unclear whether their protest plans have been approved by administrators.

But Respect for Life — a longtime club at Fordham, devoted to respecting human life from conception until death — told Fordham Daily it does not have an official stance on birth control, as beliefs vary among members of the club.

“The event is not at all designed to shame women who have had abortions in the past, but to spark dialogue and express solidarity with both victims of abortion — the pre-born victims — and the women who must bear the trauma of abortion and need healing,” the group said in a statement.

In fact, Respect for Life said Fordham should do a better job of helping students who become pregnant.

“We hope that women in the Fordham community might eventually receive better support and not feel pressured by grossly unfair circumstances to choose abortion.”

Ultimately, Respect for Life said the purpose of the annual demonstration is to speak on behalf of those who cannot.

“The pre-born cannot protest, vote, or say anything at all, and so we are compelled by our sense of justice and human solidarity to advocate on their behalf.”

“We want our advocacy to as sensitive as possible to our fellow students.”

This is it: Fordham Daily’s last post! Breathe a sigh of relief, shed a tear — I’ll be doing both. I’ll always remember what my dad, a proud Fordham grad with a philosophy degree, told me just before we parted ways in front of Queen’s Court — the building he had inhabited some 30 years earlier — on a […]